Embed Code

Deviance and Social Control PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Deviance and Social Control. Chapter 6. What is Deviance? Pages 154-157. Deviance - violation of the norms Sociologist Howard Becker (1966) “not the act itself but the reaction to the act that makes something deviant”

Related searches for Deviance and Social Control

Download Presentation

Deviance and Social Control

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation

Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author.While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server.

Presentation Transcript

What is Deviance? Pages 154-157

Sociologist Howard Becker (1966) “not the act itself but the reaction to the act that makes something deviant”

Relativity of deviance acceptable in one culture is deviant in another- this statement is true within societies. Deviance is relative

Specific form of deviance is crime- a violation of rules that are written into law

Sociologists do not view deviance as a bad thing- it is just acts that people see as negative- all of us are deviant at one time or another

Stigma characteristic that discredits people- includes violations of norms of ability (handicap), appearance (obesity) and being an involuntary member (AIDS victim)

Some stigmas can become a persons master status

How Norms Make Social Life Possible

Norms make life predictable by making behavior predictable

We are socialized to follow norms, play basic roles that society assigns us.

Norms bring social order, a groups customary social arrangement.

Deviance undermines this predictability

Groups develop a systems of social control , formal and informal ways of enforcing norms

Sanctions- expressions of disapproval of deviance bring negative sanctions- range from frowns (breaking folkways) to imprisonment (breaking mores). Positive sanctions are used to reward for conforming to the norms. Most negative sanctions are informal.

Other types of sanctions

Shaming- effective when members of a primary group use it. Often used to keep children in line and small communities. Shaming can be part of a public ritual

Degradation Ceremony- a formal attempt to brand somebody as an outsider. Individual is stripped of their identity as a group member. This dramatizes that the member is no longer part of the group

Explanations of Deviance

Sociobiologists look for explanations within people

Assume that people have genetic predispositions. Sociologists argue that genetics have little influence on deviance

Control Theory

Outer Controls-consist of people- family, friends, police officers, etc. that influence us most not to deviate

The stronger our bonds are with society the more effective our inner controls (attachments, commitments and involvements)

Control Theory

Attachments – feeling affection and respect for people that conform to mainstream norms

Commitments- having a stake in society that you don’t want to risk

Involvements- putting time an energy into approved activities

Control theory how we learn self- control. Learning self control is achieved through socialization

Labeling Theory

Labels- names, reputations, etc. we are given, become part of our self- concept

Most people resist negative labels by others

Some people that are deviant do not view themselves that way. The deflection of societies norms are rationalized in the five techniques of neutralization-denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of a victim, condemnation of condemners, appeal to higher loyalties

Functionalist Perspective of Deviance pages 164-166

Stress the functions of deviance to society (Durkheim)

It is essential to the social order

Clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms

Promotes social unity

Promotes social change

Strain Theory

Functionalists see crime as a natural part of society. Mainstream values generate crime

Strain theory was developed by Robert Merton (1956) to explain this:

When society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal (success) but withholds the means of reaching that goal to many people. An adaptation to meet the goal is crime (outside of the approved system). To attain the cultural goal.

Strain Theory

People who experience the strain feel anomie (a sense of normlessness)

Mainstream norms aren’t getting them anywhere, find it difficult to identify with these norms, feel wronged by the system, rules are illegitimate

People match their goals to their means through five ways- conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreats, rebellion where they accept, reject or replace cultural norms

Four Deviant Paths

Innovation- accept goals but use illegitimate means to reach them

Ritualism- give up on achieving goals but survive by following rules of their job (job burnout)

Retreats- reject cultural and societal goals and the means of achieving them- alcoholics, drug addicts and nuns that enter convents are examples

Rebellion- reject societies goals . They seek to give societies new goals. Revolutionaries are an example

Social Class and Crime

Social classes have distinct styles of crime because of the unequal access to institutional means.

The illegitimate opportunity structure is the term given to the opportunity for crime woven into the texture of life

Street Crime

Industrialized societies socialize all classes into the desire for material possessions (all Americans can afford society’s goods and services)

Education the most common route to success, not an option for the poor

School system is out of touch with the poor- closes the door to them as a legitimate avenue to success

White Collar Crime

Another form is corporate crime committed by executives to benefit their corporation

White collar criminals rarely spend a day in jail even though it costs more than street crime

Most Americans are concerned with street crime and the disruption it will cause in their lives.

Conflict Perspective

Conflict theorists- power and social inequality as the main characteristics of society.

Power elite that runs society also runs the criminal justice system.

Division between the haves and have nots

Those at the lower end of the scale are at the highest risk for poverty, prison

Conflict Perspective on Deviance

“Justice for all” myth promoted by the elite. Conflict theorists see the law as an instrument of oppression designed by the elite to maintain their position.

Criminal justice system does not focus on the corporate criminals, directs energies toward the working class.

When the corporate class is prosecuted and the case receives attention- stabilizes the justice system and provides evidence of “fairness”

To a conflict theorist this is a cultural device that the power elite uses to carry out self protective and repressive policies

Reactions to Deviance

Decline in Crime and Recidivism

Reaction to deviance from minor sanctions to death penalty

Past 20 years more and more people have been put in prison and three strikes laws have reduced early release.

At the same time the crime rate has dropped sharply.

Sociologists question if this has caused the drop in crime rates

Statistics demonstrate prisons fail to rehabilitate criminals.

Recidivism rate (prisoners that are rearrested) is high.

If the purpose of prisons is to keep people from being criminals, and to teach those that crime does not pay; are the prisons failing?

A Profile of A Street Criminal

14% of US population between ages of 15 and 24, account for 40% of violent crimes and 45% of property arrests

65% arrested are male

Most are poor36% of those arrested for violent crime are African-American even though they are 13% of the population

Race is closely related to social standing which affects the likelihood of engaging in street crime

African American family patterns – most grow up in single parent homes (66%)

Prejudice leads to more arrests of African Americans (they are over criminalized)

Death Penalty and Bias

Capital punishment is the most extreme measure the state takes against criminals.

It is a very divisive issue on moral and philosophical grounds

The death penalty is not administered evenly

Factors like geography, social class gender are factors in who is given the death penalty

Punishment

Why should society punish wrong doers? Four basic reasons

Retribution: oldest form of punishment

Act of moral vengeance, makes offender suffer as much as those they harmed

Deterrence: attempt to discourage criminality through use of punishment

Originally used to reform retribution

Rehabilitation: reforming offender to prevent later offences

Leads to prisons as places to teach proper behavior

Motivates offender to reform

Societal Protection: renders offender incapable of further offences through imprisonment or execution

Led to US incarcerating a higher percentage of its population than any country in the world except China

Mental Illness and the Medicalization of Deviance

Shift in the way society deals with deviance

Mental Illness is when society “medicalizes” it

Medicalization of deviance created when psychoanalysis was founded in the late 1800’s,deviance related to mental illness was seen as a medical condition that needed to be treated

Some mental illness is organic and chemical (depression). Some are defined by society (ADD)

When something becomes deviant in ways that disturbs others and a satisfying explanation can’t be found to explain it, mental illness is seen as the cause

Thomas Szaz describes these as behaviors not mental illness. Szaz thinks that mental illness as an explanation is a myth to get nonconforming , or deviant individuals to conform, to accept societies definition of “normal”

Szaz explains that deviant or bizarre behavior depends on a person’s particular experience in life, not an illness in the mind.

Szaz’s research demonstrates the power of socialization and social structures that underlie deviant behavior

Mental Illness and the Medicalization of Deviance

When deviance is defined as a medical issue it has three consequences

First who responds to deviance- medical label places situation under control of doctors and psychiatrists, not law enforcement

Second is how people respond to deviance- medically they become patients that need help not punishment

Third is the label that explains the personal competence of the deviant person- medical definition takes responsibility from the individual